Bush
should be jubilant. Yesterday [Nov. 5] Saddam Hussein was sentenced to die by
the Iraqi High Court; this should have been the glorious epilogue of the great
play directed by the Republican Administration: "The Overthrow of the Bloody
Dictator." Moreover, the timing was perfect, since the verdict came just
two days before America's midterm elections …

Alas for
the president of the world's top power, ovations are not forthcoming. It is rather
the opposite. The American voter, who frankly didn't enjoy the show, could let it
be known to all tomorrow, by slipping his/her ballot paper into the ballot box,
even at the risk of giving a Congressional majority to the Democrat party.

What
shocked the Americans, of course, wasn't the absence of weapons of mass
destruction. Nor even was it the death penalty to be meted out to the dictator,
which is still often practiced in the United States. The reason for their anger
is the mud pit their Boys are stuck in. Comparisons with Vietnam surface in every
political debate. Even the imperturbable W. was obliged to publicly acknowledge
a certain similarity - at least superficially - between the Iraqi misadventure
and the Vietnam trauma.

In any
event, both of America's Congressional chambers are within an ace of a turning
out the majority. In other words, George Bush could from now be obliged to
govern by compromise. This is a nightmare for a President who for the last six
years had plenty of elbow room. His father, former president George H.W. Bush,
doesn't deny it: he'd rather "not think about his son's life" in the event
of a Democrat wave.

Because for example, it would no longer be so easy to place
conservative judges on the Supreme Court. Great battles would occur over the program of eavesdropping
on Americans, and there would be hearings on energy, environmental and health
policies. Let's not even mention the tax breaks for oil companies. Democrats
could stop bills and - the cherry on the cake – set up boards of inquiry to
investigate the scandals surrounding the Bush Administration.

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In a
nutshell, if the voters confirm the upheaval being predicted by the polls, the
United States will still have Bush for President … but it will no longer be the
same kind of presidency.